#MalaysianGP MotoGP J.1 Andrea Dovizioso “A very positive day”

Second in the provisional standings of the World Championship, 33 points behind leader Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso did not let himself be demoralized by his thirteenth place obtained last Sunday at Phillip Island, and he proved it by dominating the two free practice sessions of this Friday that he was firmly determined to resist the Spaniard until the end.

During the first session, the competitors had a dry track and Andrea set the best time in 2'00.671, which was very close to the lap record set in 2'00.606 in 2015 by his new teammate Jorge Lorenzo, then on Yamaha. For a first session, it was a very good time taking into account the relative cleanliness of the track on Friday morning, as well as the limited rubber deposit.

In the afternoon, Dovi was again the fastest, which indicated a very high motivation in the man from Forlimpopoli, reluctant to give up the slightest crumb to his opponents, and above all, of course, not to Marc Marquez. The Iberian was not fooled, who countered Andrea with the second time in the wet, but with a gap of 0.5.

Because Dovizioso had not only been the fastest, but he had quite clearly left his opponents behind. Thus the third, his teammate Lorenzo, already found himself more than a second behind, and Cal Crutchlow or Dani Pedrosa more than two seconds.

According to Andrea Dovizioso, who are " Today was a very positive day because we were the fastest this morning in the dry and in the afternoon in the wet, and it was very important to start like that in Sepang. »

“We know there is still a lot of work to do, especially in the dry, and we hope to have a few sessions with the track in good condition tomorrow, so we can prepare the best settings for the race. »

“In any case it was good that we confirmed our pace in the wet and today we were even better than last year, so I am very satisfied: my Desmosedici is doing very well in the wet, we have an excellent grip and it was quite easy for me to go fast. »

Results of the first day:

1 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 326.0 2'00.671

2 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati 326.2 2'00.742 0.071 / 0.071

3 5 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 320.8 2'00.807 0.136 / 0.065

4 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 321.0 2'00.903 0.232 / 0.096

5 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 322.0 2'00.950 0.279 / 0.047

6 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 310.6 2'01.060 0.389 / 0.110

7 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati 315.8 2'01.077 0.406 / 0.017

8 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 313.4 2'01.147 0.476 / 0.070

9 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 318.1 2'01.162 0.491 / 0.015

10 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team Ducati 318.7 2'01.189 0.518 / 0.027

11 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati 328.4 2'01.560 0.889 / 0.371

12 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 318.1 2'01.662 0.991 / 0.102

13 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 317.9 2'01.740 1.069 / 0.078

14 43 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 320.2 2'01.803 1.132 / 0.063

15 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 317.5 2'01.831 1.160 / 0.028

16 76 Loris BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 315.4 2'02.416 1.745 / 0.585

17 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 308.5 2'02.469 1.798 / 0.053

18 45 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati 317.9 2'03.056 2.385 / 0.587

19 60 Michael VAN DER MARK NED Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 314.6 2'03.473 2.802 / 0.417

20 53 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 305.1 2'03.531 2.860 / 0.058

21 22 Sam LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 309.2 2'03.534 2.863 / 0.003

22 42 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 313.2 2'04.381 3.710 / 0.847

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

1 MARQUEZ Marc SPA 269 points

2 DOVIZIOSO Andrea ITA 236

3 VIÑALES Maverick SPA 219

4 ROSSI Valentino ITA 188

5 PEDROSA Dani SPA 174

6 ZARCO Johann FRA 138

7 LORENZO Jorge SPA 117

8 PETRUCCI Danilo ITA 111

9 CRUTCHLOW Cal GBR 103

10 FOLGER Jonas GER 84

11 BAUTISTA Alvaro SPA 70

12 MILLER Jack AUS 65

13 ESPARGARO Aleix SPA 62

14 REDDING Scott GBR 61

15 IANNONE Andrea ITA 60

16 ESPARGARO Pol SPA 49

17 RINS Alex SPA 46

18 BAZ Loris FRA 45

19 ABRAHAM Karel CZE 30

20 RABAT Tito SPA 29

21 BARBERA Hector SPA 25

22 SMITH Bradley GBR 20

23 PIRRO Michele ITA 18

24 KALLIO Mika END 11

25 LOWES Sam GBR 5

26 NAKASUGA Katsuyuki JPN 4

27 GUINTOLI Sylvain FRA 1

28 TSUDA Takuya JPN 0

Classification by manufacturers:

1 HONDA 319 points

2 YAMAHA 285

3 DUCATI 278

4 SUZUKI 87

5 APRILIA 64

6 KTM 58

Team ranking:

1 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 443 points

2 MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 407

3 DUCATI TEAM 353

4 MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 222

5 OCTO PRAMAC RACING 172

6 TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 107

7 LCR HONDA 103

8 PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 100

9 EG 0,0 MARC VDS 94

10 REALE AVINTIA RACING 70

11 RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 69

12 APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 67

Photo © Ducati